The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said in a report that the growth of Chinese patent filings abroad has increased significantly since 2000. The report noted that between 2000 and 2005, the average annual growth rate of overseas patent fillings reached 40%, and remained at 23% since 2005. It said more than 80% of Chinese foreign-oriented patent families in the 1970-2012 period included at least one patent application with the United States, Europe or Japan. In terms of absolute numbers, the majority of patent applications abroad by Chinese residents targeted the United States with close to 50,000 patent applications between 1970 and 2012, followed by Europe, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Canada. Statistics showed almost 70% of the Chinese overseas patent families were owned by firms, while the share of universities and research institutes in total patent families is about 6%.